


A seal by any other name

by thesmallestdandelion



Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Umino Iruka, I will win, Mythology - Freeform, No Bashing!!, Selkies, fight me on this one, iruka is a selkie, the umino are a selkie clan, when is he not tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-04 21:33:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14029197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesmallestdandelion/pseuds/thesmallestdandelion
Summary: Iruka has long felt the call of the sea. Rather unfortunately, he can never leave Konoha.Or, the one where Iruka's mum hides his pelt and it takes him a solid 20 years to find it





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Yagura](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yagura/gifts), [blackkat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/gifts).



> 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet'  
> ~ Juliet, Romeo and Juliet
> 
> Gifted to the lovely Yagura for her beautiful selkie!verse that i never knew I needed until I read it  
> ALSO  
> to blackkat because holy moly can u write good b

There is a reason Iruka has never progressed past chuunin: He will never be able to leave the village. Well, that’s not strictly true; he will never be able to go on the extended missions expected of tokujo and jounin, straying away from Konoha for months on end. This is due to one simple fact: Umino Iruka cannot find his own pelt.

The pelt of a selkie is their most treasured possession, an extension of their own soul, and selkies that spend long periods of time away from their pelts will eventually go insane from the pain or the longing or the loneliness. Any which way he tries to spin it, Iruka will never leave his pelt.

Of course, he could easily take it with him as he travels, but for that he would need to have it. He knows, categorically, that it must be in Konoha- he would have gone mad years past anyhow. He also knows that his mother hid it when he was a small child to protect him from the early calls of the sea a toddler is weak to; and to protect her only child from swimming away to where she could not follow. His mother, on her deathbed and lying in rubble in the shadow of the nine-tails, had told him to read the book under the loose floorboard in the kitchen as explanation.

‘Find your pelt, my love!’ She had whispered into his ear as he clung to her in desperation. ‘Find it, and keep it safe!’ At the time he had not understood, but the Book had told him all he needed: the Umino clan is an ancient clan of seal-people, often known for their origins in the whirlpools of Uzushio. His mother had fallen in love and freely given her pelt to his father. His father had then hidden it away, keeping it safe from his mother. It is the only way for a selkie to resist the sea’s call, and is a deeply painful process, in which the selkie is rendered unable to go into the sea. A peltless selkie that enters the sea often does not return alive, and if they do, their body is warped and mangled beyond repair from the partial transformation.

The Book told Iruka all he could have wanted to know about his Selkie heritage, and when he realised the imminent danger of being sent on a long C-rank, he applied to the teaching program, stopped trying to advance from chuunin, and accepted that he would never leave Konoha.

The first time he hears a gentle flute melody hovering on the air, he dismisses it as some street player in the market, and continues inspecting the tomatoes on the stall in front of him.

The second time, he is sitting at the Mission Desk looking over a jounin’s report on a B-rank escort mission- some princess – when he hears a lilting cry and tilts his head to catch the notes better. It is the same flute, but the melody is different, somehow. He blinks and focuses on the strains floating seemingly through a wall, fully concentrated on locating the direction of the source.

“Umino-san? Umino?” The jounin is peering curiously between the patch of wall and Iruka. “My report?”

Iruka shakes himself away from the music and pulls himself together. He smiles apologetically at the jounin “Sorry Jounin-san, I thought I heard something. Probably just my mind playing tricks on me, I have been on desk for a while! Your report is perfectly fine, sorry to keep you. Thank you for your service!” Iruka stamps the paper and files it, then puts the ‘BREAK’ sign on his desk, gesturing to Izumo that he’s going outside.

Once outside he listens for the music, but the spell has broken and he can longer hear it. He is unreasonably disappointed, considering twice is a coincidence. Iruka resolves that if he hears it a third time, it is a pattern, and he will follow it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> howdy heY YAGURA LEFT KUDOS THANKS YAGURA MY G 
> 
> WOO i did a little wiggle dance im happy

Of course, he does hear the music a third time and, of course, it is at the most ( _THE MOST!_ ) inconvenient time. Iruka looks down the herd of pre-genin listening to him preach about the importance of setting traps in the face of a superior enemy to make a quick getaway. It had started just as he got into his stride, and mocks him now as it drifts past him. Iruka gives a long-suffering sigh, because of course it would be now, of all times.

He rushes to finish the lesson and get the key points across, before giving up and telling them that they will be continuing in the next lesson. It will set his lessons back one, but he can put it down to the class being distracted . (They’re in a forest, he can say there was a squirrel or something. Iruka decides he has more important things to worry about.)

After the class cheers and runs off to play, Iruka sighs again and runs his hand down his face. Is he really going to play truant for a pretty tune? It’s no use. He already knows the answer.

He turns and quick-marches himself into the trees, telling himself he’ll be back in time to go to market to buy Suzume-sensei a birthday present. (He won’t. In fact, Iruka forgets about it entirely and has to make a speed-run during break-time the next day to pick up some cheap chocolates as a substitute.)

The sound actually winds its way through Konoha, Iruka trailing after it in an irritated kind of daze as it disappears around corners then comes back like an excitable puppy tugging on its leash. Iruka diligently follows it until he reaches the thickest part of the woods inside Konaha and stops short.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” The Forest of Death’s trees loom intimidatingly behind the chained fence with warning signs on it. ‘Warning! Do not enter!’ ‘Attention! Danger of death!’ The music hangs in the air just beyond the fence. Iruka sighs his deepest sigh yet, and admits to himself that this is probably the stupidest thing he has ever and will ever do. Including that one time he put stinkbombs in the jounin lounge, ~~and he had to go into hiding for weeks after that~~.

He groans and finally throws his hands in the air. “Fine! But I can’t just break the fence!” The patch of music becomes noticeably more upbeat, and twirls to his left along the fence perimeter. Iruka races after it, cursing the pace set and wondering if his mind has finally snapped.

 _Umino Iruka,_ they’ll say. _I used to see him in the market. Who would have thought? All that teaching must have finally got to him. I’ve always said it’s the nice ones you have to look out for! The Forest of Death! I don’t trust that place, they should burn it to the ground._

Iruka groans because (god forbid) someone is watching him run headfirst into the forest of death, his teacherly reputation will be ruined and he’ll be checked in for a Psych Eval and never left alone again _for his own good_.

He slips in through a gap in the bottom of the fence, probably left because anyone stupid enough to enter the forest of death is better left out of the evolutionary gene pool. The trees are thicker, and tower over him. He knows that the forest of death has some rather- er- _specialised_ \- beasties, but not a single clue on how to fight any of them.

‘Huh,’ he realises. ‘I’m probably going to die.’ He then berates himself for having a defeatist attitude, and looks forward to follow the sound. Speed, Iruka decides, is going to be the best tactic here. He sets off at a heart-attack-inducing pace and darts after the notes moving ahead of him.

Iruka has some issues, at first. He barely dodges the leeches falling from the trees the first time, and only a well-timed Katon saves him from death by having-all the-blood-drained-out-of-you-in-roughly-3-seconds-flat. The next death he manages to avoid is death by mauling-by-oversized-tiger-that-really-is-most-likely-produced-through-illegal-experimentation-why-do-we-have-these (mainly because the tiger was asleep ~~and he ran away quickly enough that he didn’t wake it up~~ ). After 30 minutes of traipsing through the forest-of-murder-creatures, Iruka is becoming a dab hand at judging areas to run away from, and evading death-animals-that-want-to eat-you.

All of a sudden, the music stops. Iruka skids to a halt and whips his head around. Of course. He really is insane. He starts speaking out loud ~~, because at this point he has nothing left to lose.~~ “Hey, Iruka! Let’s follow the elusive probably-genjutsu into the forest of things that want to kill you! Sounds like a great idea, Iruka! Why didn’t you think of this earlier? Stupid, _stupid_.”

He slumps against the nearest tree, feeling the uneven ridges dig into his back. He sighs shakily and shifts, trying to find a comfortable spot to lean on. One circular ridge in particular keeps pushing against his spine, no matter where he moves to. _Hang on_ \- Iruka turns and startles at the sight of a sealing pattern carved into the bark.  It is huge, and curls around the tree in a lazy spiral.

He doesn’t know what possesses him in that moment, but he bites his thumb like he has seen shinobi with summoning contracts do, and presses is hand to the centre of the array. The seal lights up gold, shimmering with restrained power, and the whole tree melts away to reveal a glowing blue pond. Iruka takes a wary step back and watches the ripples of light coalesce at the edges, building and whirling as the centre of the pool begins to swirl in the unmistakeable pattern of a whirlpool. He stares, transfixed at the centre. Then, as if controlled by some superior force, he is drawn onto the surface of the water. He is not using chakra, but he remains balanced on the water as it spiral beneath him. Slowly, as if in a dream, Iruka feels a thrum of energy beneath his fingers. Not chakra- his chakra is slow and viscous down pathways. This new power is quick, flowing lightly through every atom of his being. Iruka feels, for the first time in years, like he is truly living.

He raises one hand, and the whole pond (with him still on it) rises into the air. Iruka nearly falls off in shock. He carefully lowers his hand again and steps off the pool once it hits the earth. Something brushes against the back of his neck, soft and warm against his skin.

Iruka startles and looks back. Behind him is a fluffy sealskin coat, draped over his shoulders.

He has found his pelt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, consider this an unofficial ending until about July, I have a heckity hockity lot of exams
> 
> so  
> smiles until next time my guys


End file.
